After Kate's death Season 3
by DeereGirl
Summary: Kate's gone and Gibbs' team has to face new cases and a new team member. Going for a complete season here, so please be patient and review! Thanks
1. 01 Diversion

_Hi there, this is my very first FanFic ever. I have a complete story planned, so maybe it will take a few chapters to catch on to it. Hoping for reviews! Thanks! DeereGirl_

_Characters not mine except Kathy Westmann!_

**01 - Diversion**

Gibbs was furious. Not enough that the strength of his team was diminished by Kate's death and they still had no trace of her killer, now the director had ordered them to follow up on another case and leave the hunt of Ari to a fellow NCIS team, claiming Gibbs and the rest of his crew were not impartial about the case and too much personally involved. Heck, that was true, and even though revenge should never play a part in an investigation, in this case it would have surely felt right. But he had no choice, the order was given to the director from the White House and there was no way to act around it. He had to leave the case to Special Agent Rabb and his team. Rabb was a former JAG member and Gibbs had no doubt he would hunt down Ari and put him to jail for the rest of his live. He trusted Rabb but was still outraged not to be able to get Ari himself. He felt he owed it to Kate and it felt like someone was ripping out his heart whenever he thought about her.

The new case the director had assigned them to seemed to be a fake, Tony and McGee were still trying to find any helpful information or a suspect with a motive. All they knew was what the director had told them: A security officer in Norfolk had been found dead in his apartment after he hadn't shown for his shift. He was a computer specialist but was not currently assigned to any top secret activities and was also not on any lists for important or crucial missions in the future. He had no special access to the Navy's computer systems and Ducky had found no signs of external forces that could have lead to his death. The official cause of death Ducky put on the papers was a heart-failure. According to the files his father, uncle and cousin had died in young age for the same reason. The case seemed solved but the director insisted that there had to be something else to it and so Gibbs and the rest of the team tried to dig deeper. With no real leads whatsoever. In order for Gibbs to have some distraction McGee had brought in the officers' girlfriend for interrogation. Although they did not really know what to ask her, Gibbs was almost relieved to have something to do.

"Please state your full name and address for the record" he asked the young woman sitting opposite of him in the interrogation room.

"Kathrin Stephanie Westmann", she answered, "Kathrin with no e at the end and Westmann with two n's. My friends here call me Kathy."

"Well that's an unusual way of spelling" Gibbs said, "you from Germany?"

Turned out she was. Born in Mannheim, where her mother was stationed with the American Army. She had gotten pregnant in the States and then been relocated to Germany where she found out that she was pregnant. She had died shortly after the birth of her baby and Kathrin had been given to a German couple. After school and university she had now decided to travel to America and try to find relatives of her mother. That was how she'd met the deceased security officer from Norfolk – he had good expertise in writing programs to search internet databases. Over the very private search for her relatives they got closer and fell in love but Petty Officer Mark Williams was quite reserved and so she had not known that both his father and his cousin had died of a fatal heart-failure before they were thirty five.

"Didn't it bother you that the man you were in a relationship with didn't talk to you about his family – while he was helping you trying to find yours?" Gibbs asked the girl.

"I am not used to men talking about their feelings. If half your male relatives die young you live in the constant fear to be next – if I were in a situation like that I wouldn't tell anyone either. I would try not to think about it myself. Live life as long as you still have it… Besides, I am not much of a talker either. So we got along very well."

Well, that was unusual. Tony and McGee looked at each other with raised eyebrows and then looked back at the girl.

Gibbs had squeezed answers out of her for almost an hour now. She seemed to have a vest as white as a chlorine-bleached tablecloth. And he could not intimidate her with his questions or his looks. She had a history too good to be true. And that made her suspicious.

"Dig deeper on her", Gibbs told Tony and McGee after he had finished the interrogation. "Her history and her reasons are too clean, there must be something wrong with it. I want you to find it, and find it fast. I want to close this case and see that we get to support Rabb on the Ari-hunt. Understood? Good!" Gibbs said, the doors of the elevator closing behind him, leaving McGee and Tony standing in the hallway.

"You take the internet search, I'll call around in Germany to get files faxed over. I hope they speak English over there" Tony said to McGee. "Well, before you start calling, maybe you go get something to eat. It's six a.m. in Germany at the moment, I doubt that people there work that early" McGee answered. "Always want the last word, right, Newbie?"

But in fact, Tony was quite happy to get a little break. He was still shaken over Kate's death. She had been like a sister to him and he missed her terribly. Plus, this Kathy girl had really gotten to him. She was attractive, but not like the type of woman he usually enjoyed looking at. She was athletic and very tall, around 5'11'' and she had no German accent at all. Her English was very good, almost better than Ducky's, she spoke British English but knew the American idioms and expressions. She seemed to be overly intelligent and he was drawn to her like a moth to a flame. Even though he knew she was a suspect. Given the fact that she had volunteered as a paramedic for almost two years it seemed possible that she knew which drugs to give the poor guy to make his death look like a heart-failure. But what motive could she have had to kill the guy? After all he was helping her to find her relatives and had not been successful yet. So killing him would have decreased her chance of finding her next of kin drastically. It made no sense… Plus, Ducky had not found any drugs in the Petty Officers' blood. That was one of the problems – had he used the medicine prescribed to him by his doctor he most probably would still be alive. Did she murder him by taking away his medicine? By replacing it with placebos? He had to check that out…

He hurried to Abby's lab and told her about his suspicion. She went down to Ducky to figure out a way how to prove Tony's theory. Meanwhile, Tony got back to his desk and on the phone. He had never made overseas calls from his desk and was annoyed by all the administrative work that had to be done before he could make direct calls to Germany, without having to get a permit for the operator for every single call. Finally he called Gibbs on his cell and asked him to get cranky with the director. This worked just fine and after ten minutes Tony had all authorizations he needed to make direct overseas calls from his phone.

Several hours later his ears were ringing and his head was pounding. He had made over a hundred calls to different authorities in Germany, not one of those calls indicating any inconsistency with Kathy's story. Gibbs had made another short appearance, telling them to have all reports finished by 7:30 the next morning – to close the case for good.

"Found anything?" McGee asked Tony.

"No, not a single damn thing. She really is a Goddess, I think. I called everyone who ever exchanged a word with that woman and everything she told Gibbs was confirmed. Plus, everyone seems to be just crazy about her."

"Same here" McGee said, "all files I could access matched her statements. And I even hacked into some secured state databases."

"We're ruined. If we have nothing to tell Gibbs tomorrow morning he's gonna go ballistic" Tony mumbled. "Let's hope Abby and Ducky got something out of my idea with the placebos".

"They already left about an hour ago" said McGee, "and I think we should do the same. It'll just leave us enough time to get two hours of sleep, take a shower and get back here." So they left NCIS Headquarters at dawn.

Gibbs indeed went ballistic the next morning. Kathy's vest was even whiter than the day before. Abby and Ducky had not found any trace of drugs in Williams' blood, all the pills left in the bottle retrieved from his nightstand were the actual stuff, no traces of placebos found either. Ducky had carefully examined his heart and had nothing further to say. As Tony's calls and McGees' internet-research further confirmed all of Kathy's history and testimony, Gibbs had no choice than to inform the director that Petty Officer Mark Williams had died from a heart-failure. He was outraged after meeting with his team and everybody was nervous when he stormed out of Abby's lab to talk to the director. They all followed him in a safe distance and only Tony was brave enough to get close to the door of the director's office to try and listen what was being said. Ducky went downstairs to get some coffee and Abby and McGee were curiously staring at Tony's face to interpret what he was hearing. All of a sudden the door was opened and Gibbs was storming out.

"What did you think you were doing with this charade, director?" he yelled.

The director was running after him, leaving Tony, Abby and McGee standing in the hallway

"Is that your way of testing your staff if they are still able to do their jobs after one of their colleagues got killed? Don't ever try to test me like that again, is that understood?" He barked at the shocked director, then turned on his heel and walked up to the rest of the team.

"Back to the lab" he hissed "I'll introduce you to your new team member."

Abby looked at McGee and Tony with huge eyes, surprise written all over her face. "Well, that was quick. Normally it takes weeks to approve new NCIS members" she said.


	2. 02 New Girl on the Teeam

**02 – New Girl on the Team**

Tony found Ducky in the main hall and hurried him back to the lab, where Abby and McGee were already waiting. Everyone was basically talking to themselves, making assumptions on who the Newbie would be and no one was paying attention to Gibbs when he entered the room. He was not alone.

"Attention everyone" he called, and all of a sudden there was silence in the room. With just the faint sound of the computer cooling system, Gibbs was looking at his team. "May I introduce you to our new colleague, Special Agent …" the door opened and a tall woman entered "… Kathrin Westmann."

Immediately the silence was gone. Everyone was yelling questions. Except Tony, he grew pale and felt like someone had given him a punch in his stomach. Luckily, nobody was paying any attention to him, as they were all storming towards Gibbs and Kathy, eager to learn what was going on.

"If you shut up and listen we might be able to get through with this like civilized people and can begin to get some work done today" Gibbs finally shouted unnerved and slowly the yelling turned into murmur and then into silence.

"As I just learned from our director, Kathy had applied for a job at NCIS already before she had met Petty Officer Williams. When the director learned that we would bring her in for interrogation he thought that this would be a good test for her story. They thought that her camouflage would not be save if we could crack it – and when we were not able to do so, they considered her NCIS material and immediately transferred her to our team. As you are well aware we had the only open position." His voice cracked and he was looking at the floor, trying to get it together again. "Special Agent Westmann, why don't you bring your new team up to speed about who you really are."

Kathy looked at the five people now standing in front of her. Gibbs and Ducky in the back of the room, arms crossed in front of their chests, Abby sitting on the desk next to the computer, swinging her legs, looking at her with eyes wide open and her eyebrows curiously raised. They had not met before, but Kathy instantly liked Abby. McGee was standing next to her, looking interested but not as amazed as Abby. Tony was still standing in front of the DNA-Sequencer, not able to move just one inch ever since Kathy had entered the room.

His thoughts were going crazy and he wouldn't have been able to say his name if someone had asked him in this moment.

"I apologize for everything. It was not my intention to mislead you about my identity. But I had orders from the White House to act exactly as I did and as I was just recently granted American citizenship I found it wise not to tamper with my guidelines. The truth is that I worked for several secret service organisations all over Europe before I came to the United States. I have gone through trainings similar to the ones that your Navy Seals undergo, I have degrees in computer science, medicine, forensics, engineering and weapons technology. My last assignments were all in Anti-Terrorist missions and my bosses found it best to transfer me to the US so that my skills can be brought to a more efficient use. I heard that you just lost a colleague in a terrorist attack and I am well aware of the fact that it is not easy to work with someone new after such a short span of time. I do not intend to take Kate's place, but I do intend to do a perfect job and I hope that you will give me the support that you are famous for," she said, with a glance to Gibbs. Abby was smiling, she got the hidden joke in Kathy's statement.

Gibbs was still angry, in part at the director, for playing games with him, in part with Kathy, for not being honest. Deep inside he knew that it was not her fault and that she had just followed her orders, but he was still mad.

So was Tony. He was still standing at the exact same place where he had been when Kathy had walked in. He was completely confused by his feelings. Knowing that she had worked on so many top secret and highly dangerous assignments over in Europe made him feel small. Plus, he was feeling things that he had never felt before. He was not sure if it was just a crush or love – but he definitely knew that despite all those feelings he did not trust her. There was something about her that he didn't like and he had the gut feeling that she was still hiding something from them. And it did not feel like it was a good thing. When he was finally able to move towards Kathy to welcome her to the team he made the decision not to get to close to her and not let her lull him in with her charms (she WAS charming and beautiful, this he couldn't deny). He would stay watchful and if she indeed was on to something he would find out and stop her from doing it if it meant any danger for the team or anyone else.

"You really didn't make our research skills look to good to our dear director", he said, while shaking her hand.

"Don't take this the wrong way", Kathy answered, "but first of all, the best double-identity experts all over Europe have been covering my actions and second, working undercover in Europe automatically means to lead two lives. Even my closest friends have no idea who I really am. So you really didn't have a chance of finding anything suspicious on me."

McGee came over and gave a short laugh. "Well, I feel a little relieved hearing this," he said. "I always considered myself as a real expert in online research. But when you say there was nothing to find I may be able to get over my failure a little faster."

"May YOU be able to get over it or may GIBBS be able to get over it?" Abby asked, the smile on her face reaching from one ear to the other.

Gibbs interrupted the gathering quite harsh. "Back to your desks everyone. It's a working day, now that we are a full team again the director and the NAVY won't wait to assign us to a new case. And as far as I remember I am still missing some reports on our last case. And by some I mean ALL reports. Special Agent Westmann will use any time she gets on her hands to catch up on all past assignments that show any connection to terrorism. Are we clear about this? Good, get to work!"

So everything was back to normal. Abby started packing all evidence from Williams' apartment into a big box, Ducky disappeared into the elevator, McGee, Kathy and Tony followed Gibbs back to the office. When they got to their desks, Gibbs had already gone to get coffee. McGee and Tony were looking at Kathy with an awkward look on their faces. She had to take Kate's desk, of course, and it freaked them out to see her sit there. She put her backpack down, opened it and took out a tumbler while taking a seat and booting the computer.

McGee strolled off to his desk and Tony pretended to type his report on the closed case while in fact he was watching Kathy. She had opened the tumbler and taken a sip of its content. The delicious smell of strong coffee suddenly filled the air. Tony took a closer look at the tumbler while Kathy was taking another sip. Hard to believe that a top-notch undercover agent had a coffee-tumbler with an obviously self-made motive: it had painted cows in all colours all over it. Tony couldn't help a smile.

"What is it?" Kathy asked.

"Oh, I was just admiring your tumbler. Very stylish and sophisticated." Tony replied.

"Well, I happen to love coffee and cows and sometimes I want to be creative – what's wrong with that? It's not like I'm wearing a shirt with cows on it."

"I didn't make fun of you, Kathy, I really like the mug, I just don't know what Gibbs will think about it." Tony said.

"What will Gibbs think about what?" came the question behind Tony.

He turned, only to find Gibbs had already passed his desk and returned to his own one. Just as he wanted to sit down a wave of Kathy's coffe-scent got to him. He sniffed to find out where it came from, followed the trail and was then standing in front of Kathy.

She hadn't paid any attention to his returning as she was busy setting up her programs on the computer. The administrator had cleared Kate's PC and put up an all-new workstation for Kathy, with lots more power, three screens, several high-speed DSL-lines and lots of extra hardware, just that he had no idea how to link everything, so she got started right away as it was quite some work to get all the components up and running.

"Ah-hem", Gibbs gave a strange sound. She lifted her had and gave him a questioning look.

"What you got in that tumbler?" he asked her.

"Well, that is coffee, what else do you think it could be according to the smell?" Kathy asked, a sceptical look on her face.

"This is coffee alright, but it is not any coffee, I can smell that, I KNOW coffee", Gibbs said. "Where did you get it? There's just a few places in the whole country where you can get this kind of coffee and they don't put it into the customers' own mugs."

"Well, I brought this coffee from my apartment. I KNOW coffee, too, and I brought my Swiss coffee machine from Germany. The coffee beans are imported from Italy. I never drink anything else." Kathy replied.

Tony was amazed. Someone able to teach Gibbs about coffee and, even more surprising, loving the same coffee was almost more than anyone knowing Gibbs could have ever imagined. If Kathy hadn't pissed him off so much on their very first contact Tony would have sworn her answer could have triggered an immediate marriage-proposal by Gibbs. Tony smiled at this thought. Gibbs was very special about his coffee and never ever had anyone understand this – not even speaking about liking the same strong essence in their cups.

Now he was smiling at Kathy, his head slightly tilt, watching her take another sip out of the cow-tumbler.

"You have a good taste", he said to her.

Tony grinned. It was official. They had a new girl on the team.


	3. 03 Revealing the past

_Next chapters' up. Hope you like it. I have a rough plot in my mind but would appreciate your comments on how you like it so far! Thanks._

_Characters not mine except Kathy Westmann. Harm Rabb borrowed from JAG!_

**03 – Revealing the past**

Three weeks had gone by since Kathy joined Gibbs' team at NCIS. They had solved the incredible total of fifteen cases in that time, a fact that quickly spread at NCIS Headquarters and was one of the topics at the directors' monthly staff meeting. But Gibbs didn't like the success of his team to be the topic when something else was more important.

"We shouldn't sit here and talk about CLOSED cases, no matter how many of them we have. We should discuss OPEN cases and see to it that we all work together to get them solved" he barked to his colleagues and his director.

The leaders of the other teams moved in their chairs with discomfort. They all knew he was referring to the case of Special Agent Rabb's team, tracking down Kate's killer Ari, that was still far from being solved

"What do you suggest we do", asked the director, already knowing the proposal and the he would have to deny the action.

"Let my team help with the investigation" Gibbs answered. "We have proven that Special Agent Westmann is fully integrated and she's without a doubt one of the best investigators NCIS has seen in a long time. Not using this asset to hunt down the worlds' most dangerous terrorist is something NCIS can't afford to do "he said in a calm, yet very intense voice.

The director gave a short sigh. "You know I can't assign you to this case" he said, studying the structure of the wooden conference table, "it is against the rules, and those rules are set and controlled by the White House. There is no way I can grant you an exception!"

"With all due respect, Sir" Gibbs voice had a crisp tone to it now "what good are rules that help terrorists plan another 9/11? You should at least TRY to get a permit from the President, I think we have enough solved cases on our hands to back up our standpoint."

"Why don't we just put Agent Westmann on a temporary assignment to my team" came Special Agent Rabb's voice from the other end of the table, "she is new and not personally affected. Seem to me she has the biggest part in all those solved cases anyhow. No offence, Jethro", he added, well aware that Gibbs would not let that be the last word said about the performance of his team.

"You could not be more wrong, Harm" Gibbs said, looking at Rabb, his voice still calm but with a slightly sharp edge to it. "The reason why we were so damn effective in the past three weeks is that the team members support and complement each other perfectly and that they work together as one. And this is due to the fact that already before Westmann joined us we had the strongest individuals on the team. Otherwise it wouldn't be MY team!"

"Gentlemen, please, back to the point" the director interrupted them before Rabb could say anything back to Gibbs. "I'll see what I can do about an exception permit and inform you both about the results. Dismissed!"

"You don't honestly think that they're gonna have me share this case with you, do you, Jethro?" Rabb was walking next to Gibbs while leaving the directors' office and going back to their desks.

"And you don't honestly think I'll agree to get Westmann currently assigned to your team so that you can hit on her even more than you already do now, do you, Harm" Gibbs replier, not even looking at him.

They both smiled a little while taking their seats at their desks.

"So, boss, what's the news from the director?" Tony was so curious to know about the meeting that he blurted his question out even before Gibbs had reached for the coffee that Kathy had put on his desk. It had become a new ritual that she would bring him coffee from her place in the morning and they would both drink the first cup with their eyes closed and a big smile on their faces.

"Gibbs started his computer. "No news. I got him checking with the White House to get us assigned to support Rabb's team, but this is not affirmative yet – so don't bother to think about it" he said, looking first at Tony and then at McGee, who was now standing next to his desk so that Gibbs wouldn't have to yell in order for McGee to understand what he was saying.

Kathy sat at her desk listening to the conversation with a somewhat clouded look on her face, growing even more serious when Tony gave a pitiful sigh at Gibbs' comment.

"Why can't they just let us catch this son of a bitch, put him to jail, or, better yet, to hell, and let us have our peace with it" he said, staring thoughtfully at the wall.

Kathy still looked troubled without saying a word.

"Got something to say, Special Agent Westmann?" Gibbs asked her.

Tony and McGee immediately focussed on her so there was not time to cover up the obvious disagreement with Tony's words that was shown on her face. Tony saw the expression and felt a tickle run down his spine. He tensed, remembering what he had sworn to himself on the day Kathy had joined the team – to keep an eye on her, to not let her lull him in. He still didn't trust her, maybe now he would get closer to her dark secret. He was oh so sure she had one.

"Still waiting for you to enlighten us with your thoughts, Westmann" Gibbs repeated.

"Working on a case where investigators are personally involved never comes to a good end. Never!" Kathy was now looking at Gibbs.

He looked back at her, not saying anything. McGee was still standing next to him, not moving, barely breathing. Tony had gotten up from his chair and walked around Kathy's desk. Cutting Gibbs' sight at her off he stood in front of her chair, put his hands on her armrests and bent down, his face finally only an inch away from hers.

"And how do you come to this insightful conclusion, Special Agent Westmann?" he whispered, his voice tense and so sharp that McGee instantly took a step back, frightened about the wrath in Tony's voice.

Kathy looked back at Tony, neither scared nor intimidated by the closeness, the look in her eyes now so sad Tony almost drew back in shock.

"Because, Tony, it has happened to me already twice" she replied. "Both times everyone swore they'd just get the suspects and put them to justice, promising not to try and take their revenge. And both times team members got careless when they finally closed in on the suspects. They thought they could take it safe, kill the bad guy – and forgot their own cover about it". Her voice trailed off, indicating that the worst part of the story was yet to be said. McGee was terrified.

Tony didn't pay any attention to the sound of her voice or the look in her eyes. He was still looking at her, fiercely, asking "Would you care to fill us in on the rest of your story?"

She leaned back a little in her chair to get a better focus on him. Her voice was normal again when she continued to speak.

"In both cases several team members got killed, both times I was the only one to survive. Both times I was accused of being a double agent and had to face terrifying investigations from Internal Affairs. Both times it was proven that I was not guilty, but in the first incident I lost my brother and in the second one I lost my fiancée. After that I left Europe for good and I swear to God, this will NEVER happen to me again!"

With these words, pushing Tony aside, she got up and looked at Gibbs.

"Should you get the permission from the White House and get the assignment to the Ari-case, I will ask the director to be transferred. A team looking for revenge is bound to go down and I won't be part of it. Not again.

And with that she picked up her bag and left the office.


	4. 04 Trust her?

**04 – Trust her?**

"Wow, now that was a shocking story" McGee was the first one to speak again after Kathy had rushed out of the room.

"Shut up, Probie!" Tony still stood frozen on the exact same spot Kathy had shoved him to when jumping out of her chair. He had a hard time believing what he just heard. Could this be all there was to the dark secret of Kathrin Westmann? Or was that just a story she had made up, another one that would prove true to any checks, just like the rest of her history did when they were interrogating her on the Williams-case? Hell, this was like digging for gold in an iceberg – the more stuff you remove from the top, the more comes up from underneath the water.

"You still alive, DiNozzo?" He suddenly realized Gibbs was talking to him.

"Sorry, boss, I just don't know what to think about this story. A little hard to believe, a little too close to the waterworks. Well, at least for women."

"That's why I asked McGee to get Abby and check up on it. The Europeans don't put fake Internal-Affairs-Investigations into any of their files. If this story is fake we'll find out. But if it's true – will you finally start trusting her?"

Tony looked up at Gibbs, stunned. "Why would you think I don't trust her, boss?"

"Tony, I may be grumpy and strange, but I'm not stupid. I know you and I know when you fake it. And with Kathy – you faked it big time."

"Does anyone else know?" Tony felt bad about the whole situation, but there was nothing he could have done differently about it.

"Don't worry about that. McGee, Abbs and Ducky have no clue. Neither does anyone else. Only…"

"Only what, boss, you're killing me here! I don't want to be known all over NCIS as the asshole that doesn't trust the new team member!"

"Only I'm not 100 sure about Kathy. She has a very decent profiler-training and is incredibly intelligent. She might have picked something up, Tony. If her story turns out to be true you really should talk to her."

"Yeah, I guess I really should. I know it's crazy, but I just couldn't get rid of the strange feeling, it didn't seem like us to screw up the research on her history, no matter how top secret it was. And I didn't want to be a pain in the ass about it, so I decided to just keep it to myself. Until I found proof for my instincts. Or against them. It was not my intention to shout you out, Gibbs." Tony looked at Gibbs, serious trouble and conflict in his eyes.

"I know that, DiNozzo, don't worry about me. I appreciate your being alert. Saves lives. Just need to calibrate it a little better."

They followed McGee down to the lab together. Abby and McGee were already frantically typing on their laptops.

"Got anything yet, kids?" Tony asked when they entered, although he was not sure which answer he actually wanted to hear.

"No, not really" Abby replied without looking up or slowing down her typing, "the Germans have top-notch firewalls and security-codes on all their systems. I am very impressed."

"Not the answer I'm looking for, Abbs" Gibbs bent down and looked over her shoulder.

"Patience, oh glorious crime-fighter" Abby smiled back at him, "even Pros like us need a little time to hack into systems like that. Plus, you don't want the European Secret Service on your ass, so we better cover our trail, right?"

"Got me, Abbs. Good planning. So how much longer do you think you'll need?" Gibbs was getting impatient now.

"Should be in the ESS database within the next ten minutes or so. The main server is in Berlin, lucky for us they're asleep at the moment. Lucky you, Gibbs, that you have two geniuses hackin' their asses of for you." Abby grinned.

"I'll get us something to drink, be back in ten" Gibbs said, already on his way out.

Tony was nervous. He couldn't do anything so he started pacing around the lab. Luckily Abby and McGee were so concentrated on cracking the codes they didn't pay any attention to his constant tapping.

He was feeling like he was going insane. Gibbs was right, of course, Kathy MUST have realised that he had reservations against her. Now what would be more horrible: being right and proving the woman that he could easily fall in love with an impostor – which would break his heart – or being wrong and having to explain to her why he hadn't trusted her? A question that he couldn't even answer to himself? Wow, he'd rot in hell either way…

"Got it!" came a shout from Abby, "you lose, sucker!" she smiled at McGee, who grimaced at her. They would always see any task like this as a competition, no matter how good they got along.

Then the three of them were looking at each other. They were all curious to dig into the files – but Gibbs wasn't back yet, even though the ten minutes were already over.

"So, what do we do?" McGee looked at Tony, one eyebrow raised.

"Why do you ask me that? I won't make any decision and get my butt kicked all over the place when it's the wrong one. It's a no-win-situation! You know that, Probie, what are you trying here?" Tony replied, barely able to speak, he was getting more nervous by the second now.

Truth was, he couldn't decide whether he wanted to know the truth or not. If he could stop the world from turning right now – he would.

Abby and McGee were still looking at him.

"What? You know I'm right! Whatever we do is wrong, right?"

In this moment the door opened and Gibbs returned with an extra-large cup of Caff POW and four coffees.

"Did I allow you to take a break, techies?" he snapped at McGee, who unfortunately was sitting closest to him.

"Well… uhm … boss – it's not like that … we … uhm …"

"We, what, McGee?" Spit it out already, man!"

"We're in boss, we were just waiting for you to return before we started checking the files." McGee talked so fast even Abby had trouble understanding him. But not Gibbs.

"Get going already, open the damn files!" Gibbs said while handing out the coffee and getting closer to the big screen.

"There you go" Abby hit some keys on her laptop and the file flashed on the screen.

It took them only seconds to read the lines. Abby had opened the overview sheet. Tony froze. He heard Gibbs breathe out sharply and McGee made a sound like he was getting sick. He heard all that but it felt like it came from a parallel universe.

Kathy had obviously told the truth. But from the overview sheet alone it became very clear that the reality must have been much worse than what she had shared with them. The short notes indicated a massacre worse than anything any of them had ever experienced.

Abby was looking at the screen, eyes wide open. How could anyone not have killed themselves after THIS had happened to them? Of course McGee had filled her in on what Kathy had told them upstairs but she was still shocked to read it now.

"You want me to pull out the detail-files, Gibbs?"

Tony had to sit down at Abby's question. The short version was already more than he could take, he would definitely not be able to do as much as look at the details of the cases.

"No, Abbs, we've seen enough" Gibbs said, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"So I'll just save this and get out of the ESS systems then."

"No, Abbs, we're not saving any of this. Just get out and I suggest we all try and forget what we've just read" Gibbs said quietly.

"I am such an asshole!" Tony really felt like throwing up now, "How could I be so out of line, Gibbs, why didn't you just stop me?"

He looked at Gibbs, in despair, as if he was going to die.

"Tony, in our job everyone has something really horrible in their past that is crucial for team- und trust-building. Kathy knew about Kate, she knew that this was OUR past and she know that she had to share her nightmare with us in order for us to trust her and that's what she did" Gibbs said to him, his voice soft as if he was calming down a little child after a bad dream.

"She was right with everything she said about the revenge-thing, wasn't she, boss?" came McGee's voice from the back.

Gibbs just nodded.

"Well, I just hope you don't try anything stupid should you get the permit from the White House. I don't want any more of my friends getting killed!" Abby said with a thin voice. She was still in shock.

"We're not asking for a permit any more "Gibbs said.

"That's why it took you so long to get back with the drinks – you went to the director before coming back. You knew Kathy had told the truth, how did you know?" Tony was still too weak to get up from his chair.

"I have a friend at the ESS who told me the story about two years ago. He didn't mention the name of the female team leader back then but when Kathy started telling the story I knew she was talking about the same occurrence." Gibbs was still looking at the screen that was black now.

Tony finally managed to get up. He walked to the door and left without a word.

"Where's he going?" Abby looked at Gibbs with raised eyebrows.

"Apologising to Kathy would be my first guess" Gibbs answered.

Abby took a deep draft of Caff POW and smiled. Tony had the hots for the new girl, that was for sure.


	5. 05 Confessions

**05 – Confessions**

With his "first guess" Gibbs was close, but not completely right. After leaving the lab, Tony took the stairs to the roof. He ran up as fast has he could, his heart pounding, breathing fast, his head getting clearer by the second.

"I should do this more often" he thought, "would be better than any other workout."

By the time he reached the last floor, his idea that some fresh air and a quit place to think would clear his head was practically obsolete – his hear was racing and the accelerated heart rate had made his head as clear as it could get.

He pushed the door open and turned left, looking for Kate's favourite "alone-place". Abby had told him about it when they were sharing memories just shortly after the funeral. Kate had come here whenever she needed time to think – or to dream. May the spot she had used could help him, too.

Before facing Kathy he wanted to figure out what to say to her. Roughly at least, he was not much an actor. He could make up the best lines in his head, but remembering them when finally faced with the situation was not his strength.

God, it was like a labyrinth up here. Several entries to elevator- and air-condition service-shafts blocked the way to the other end of the roof, where Abby had described the spot Kate used to retreat to.

"That must be it" Tony thought when he turned around one more corner – and froze.

"Kathy, what the hell are you doing here – how did you find this spot? Are you okay?" After about half a second of shock Tony was worried. She looked terrible, her face was white her eyes staring desperately at the well opposite her without really seeing it, she was looking small and fragile, despite her remarkable body height of 5'11", curled up next to a chimney. She didn't move, not even look at him.

"I needed to get fresh air so I came up here and chose the place most far away from the door – hoping nobody would find me here. But why is this important now? How did you find me? I had to get back down eventually – wouldn't that have been soon enough to tell me I'm fired?" She was still staring at the wall.

Tony didn't understand a word.

"What makes you think I'm here because you're fired?" he asked her, sitting down in front of her, trying to catch her look.

"Well, not that you know how superbly I screwed up my two most important assignments there is no other way than to kick me out, right?" Finally she turned his head to him, sadness and frustration, but also a hint of fear in her eyes.

Tony felt a strange ache in his stomach. God, she was beautiful and it nearly killed him to see her so shattered.

"Kathy, you're not gonna get fired. People make mistakes, they learn from them, that's how it is. And you are not the first one to have screwed up something important. That was me. By not trusting you when you joined our team and by not openly addressing the doubts I had. I am very sorry about this – please accept my apology, will you?"

"There's nothing to apologize for, Tony. I should have told you about this from the start. But I thought given the facts about those two missions I would have never gotten clearance for NCIS in the first place if anyone knew about it. How could they trust me with any assignment knowing that I kept my mouth shut over the true identity of the team members back then?"

She looked at him in despair now, still not believing that she was not fired.

"I don't understand Kathy, what are you talking about?" Tony looked at her completely mixed up now.

"You did hack into ESS mission files, didn't you?" Kathy asked him.

"Yeah, well, we did, but we just took a look at the overview sheets. Gibbs ordered Abby not to open the detail files and not to save anything. We just read it, that's it." Tony hoped she would still tell him the rest of the story.

"Well, ESS deploys staff from all European National Secret Service Departments on international missions. To protect the agents, ESS only gets codenames along with the special skills-lists of each agent. It is in fact a little bit like Mission: Impossible. Linking the codenames to the real ones would be lethal for the agents. That's why it's not done. Teams are put together by skills only. But the team leaders are to speak up when they discover that relatives or friends are assigned to their team for a mission. As soon as I found out that first my brother and later my fiancé I should have contacted my supervisor and inform him about the situation. But I was worried that instead of replacing the team members they would replace me. And that I didn't want. So I kept my mouth shut, knowing it was against the rules and dangerous for the mission. After the first disaster with my brother they showed mercy, but after the second failure they were about to kick me out. Only I resigned before they could do so."

She was looking at the wall again, no expression on her face or in her look at all now.

"Well, don't get me wrong here, but it seems to me like you have no one left to lose now, so you practically can't make this "mistake" again now, can you?"

"Tony, I want to be the best. No matter what. To prove that, to get assigned to the most important, most complicated missions, I'd virtually do anything." She replied with a bitter laugh.

Tony couldn't help but smile. "Now, THAT sounds appealing – since you'll be getting assignments from me most of the time in the near future." He grinned.

Now Kathy smiled, too. "Don't get your hopes or anything else up, DiNozzo, THAT is not included in the things I'd do!"

They were both laughing now, relieved to have left the complicated matters behind.

"There's one more thing I still don't get, though." Tony almost couldn't get himself to ask the question that was now burning on his tongue. He didn't want to upset Kathy again but he also didn't want any new reason for mistrust.

"How did you get the American citizenship after you had worked for the Europeans – and having screwed up? I mean, this is not really something the US Government would just overlook."

"My mother was American and although no one knows who my father is, most probably he is American, too. I was born in an American Army hospital in Germany and technically the doctors should have sent me back to the states to my mothers' family after her death. But they were too lazy for all the paperwork and had no idea where to find any family. So they just gave me to a German family. When I claimed all this I had my American passport in no time." Kathy replied.

"What about your father? Did you find any leads when you worked with Williams – or didn't you look after him?"

"No, we were trying to find the family of my mother. On her we at least had some information to follow up on. She was married three times before she came to Germany."

Tony raised an eyebrow. Now, THAT was a freakish coincidence! Kathy gave him a strange look but didn't ask him what was up. She continued to talk.

"There is no record of her maiden name in any of the old Army files. After her third divorce she kept the name of her second husband, Preston, and this was the name under which she got enlisted. Her maiden name does not appear anywhere. We tracked down her second husband but that was a dead end. They met when she was running from her first husband, but Preston claimed that she never told him his name and that she had no contact whatsoever to her family while they were married. Which was only for six months…" Kathy rolled her eyes. "God, this is so pathetic, I'm not even sure I wanna find anyone of this family."

Tony looked at her and her eyes told him she really meant that. But still – everybody needed family. Even someone as strong and tough as Kathy.

"I know what you're thinking, DiNozzo. I HAVE a family. My foster parents and my sister are in Germany. I love them and the rest of their relatives just as much as I would love any "real" family." Kathy said with a very determined voice.

"I believe that, and I also believe that you might not want to find your mothers' family because they may be weirdoes. But what about your father?" Truth be told, HE was curious now about that man. Kathy was an amazing person and her character-features had obviously not come from her mother. So the father supposably was an outstanding person.

"Tony, I'm good but I'm not a miracle-worker. From what I could get out of the former hospital staff my mother told them that with my father it had been a one-night-stand. She had wanted to get lucky one last time before she joined the Army and lied to him about her identity. She never told his name. Now, where would I start searching with that kind of information?"

She had a point. Tony sighed. Damn, that would have been an interesting search to pick up on. He heard Kathy laugh and turned his head to her with a questioning look.

"I am sorry to keep you away from an interesting story. You just looked at that wall like a kid that has been told that Santa Clause does not exist. You really should grow up!"

She was still laughing and he realized that she was even more beautiful now than before. Because her eyes were laughing now, too.

"But – why did you actually come up here, if it wasn't to look for me?" Now she got him. She had confessed to him, now it was his turn.

"I wanted to think about what to say to you for apologies. I didn't mean to mistrust you or anything, but I had this gut feeling that something was wrong with you. After finding out I was wrong I thought I couldn't face you without thinking the past three weeks through and just put all the doubts to rest." Saying this embarrassed him so much he couldn't hold her look any more and turned his eyes to the ground.

"Kate came here quite often: Abby told me that. She was always balanced, she would have never messed up with you like I did, she would have just confronted you like an adult." He sighed again. "I guess I REALLY need to grow up!"

"We all grow up sooner or later, DiNozzo. But taking time to think is never wrong. As I said, I wasn't completely honest with you so there's no need for an apology. But I'll still leave you alone now – I guess if I actually still have my job I should get some work done."

She smiled at him, got up and squeezed his shoulder with her left hand before she went back to the stairs. Tony followed her with his looks as long as he could, then sighed again.

"Gee, DiNozzo, what's with the constant sighing?" He said to himself. "This has to stop, otherwise instead of growing up I'll grow into being a woman."


	6. 06 Addiction

_Chapter is ready. I have so many ideas that I have trouble to stay focused. Please review! I want to write some more about actual NCIS cases – any ideas for that???_

_Disclaimer: characters still not mine except Kathy Westmann._

**06 – Addiction**

One week after what the team now called "The big confession-session" Tony came to the office quite a bit later than usual. He had had his annual physical exam at the NCIS medical department that morning and it had gone REALLY well. Being told that he was healthy and fit above average by an attractive female doctor after having undergone several tests with a not less attractive nurse had put him into a very cheerful mood.

He loped out of the elevator and almost sang his "Good morning" to his colleagues. McGee was the only one to answer. Tony stopped at his desk and looked around. Kathy was sitting at her desk with a grim look on her face and very small, tired looking eyes, typing something so fast Tony could have sworn he saw smoke coming from her keyboard. Gibbs was nowhere to be seen. Now – this was kinda odd… Did they have a new case?

Tony looked around, searching for Gibbs, then walked over to McGee.

"Fill me in, Probie, what's the new case and why did the boss leave without me?"

McGee looked at him uncomfortably. "No new case, Tony" he lowered his voice, "Kathy's coffee-machine is broken." He looked over to Kathy's desk, almost as if he was afraid she could overhear what he was telling Tony.

Tony on the other hand could not believe what he just heard. Catching up McGee's look he turned to Kathy to check the expression on her face a little closer. THAT was a look caused by a faulty coffee machine? "Come on, McGee, how stupid do you think I am?" he thought.

"You tryin' to twit me, Probie? Cause you'd regret that! Why doesn't she just send the thing in for service and get her coffee elsewhere 'till she gets it back?"

"Well, see" McGee obviously took this very seriously – God knows how many people he had already explained this to, "the problem is that it's a Swiss brand. Rarely available here. There is only one retailer in DC where you can get those machines – and he can't service it. So she has to send the machine to Montreal, that's where the central non-European service department is. It'll take at least four weeks until she gets it back because they have to order spare-parts from Switzerland. So, you see," finally McGee was getting to the point, "they didn't get any coffee this morning. The place Gibbs used to get his before he started that deal with Kathy has closed down – and obviously they are so addicted to those Italian coffee Kathy has at home that they won't drink any other coffee now."

Tony looked ad him in disbelief. McGee had to be kidding, right? That was too weird, even for a guy like Gibbs, not to mention Kathy, who seemed so – well, normal.

"Check Gibbs' trash if you don't believe me. That's where he put the coffees I brought him from seven different coffee shops during the morning."

Tony looked at McGee, still not knowing what to make of this story. He walked over to Gibbs' desk. This couldn't be happening. He peeked into the trash. But it WAS happening. He was staring at seven cups of coffee, thrown into the bin carelessly, so that some of them had lost their lids. Half empty and full containers were swimming in a lake of now cold coffee. The cleaning staff would have fun with this. Or not.

He turned back to McGee, who was looking at him with a sort of triumphant look and then got back to his report. Boy must Gibbs be in a bad mood! Lucky he hadn't shown yet.

Tony walked back to his desk but then stopped to take a look into Kathy's trash as well. Same scenario as with Gibbs' trash. Floating coffee cups. Disgusting.

"Man, am I glad I'm not a coffee-addict" he mumbled to himself. It was not soft-spoken enough, though, as the next second he was hit from behind – by a paper-ball! He winced, surprised that a paper-ball could actually cause pain. Who was that woman – Mrs. Pitcher???

He sat down in his chair, rubbing his head. For the first time this morning Kathy was looking at him. Her face still had that frozen expression but her eyes were smiling at him.

"Don't make fun of my loss, DiNozzo, or next time I'll use a baseball to hit you!" She said, trying to keep her voice serious.

Just as Tony wanted to reply he got whacked on the head and winced again. Gibbs was obviously back and didn't need coffee to be able to sneak up at people.

"Don't say it, DiNozzo. Tell me how your physical was and then get to work. That is, if you passed and are still fit for duty as an agent." Gibbs looked at him inquiring, one eyebrow raised.

"Boss, I am practically more than fit!" Tony was almost twittering now. "My blood test was perfect and …"

But Gibbs silenced him with a scathing look.

"Thanks, DiNozzo, that's more than I need and want to hear."

"… the good-looking nurse told me she hadn't seen such an athletic and well-shaped body in a really long time." Tony babbled into his inexistent beard. Gibbs should really be more interested in his fitness. Wasn't it something really outstanding to have someone as fit as him on his team? And shouldn't he get some credit for the deprivation he took to gain and preserve this fitness? He was mortally offended.

He booted his computer and looked at Kathy to check if she had overheard his last sentence.

She obviously had. Looking at her screen, still typing really fast, she had a big grin on her face.

"So, did you get her number?" she asked, not looking at him, her voice tickled pink.

"Ah, sorry, whose number?" Tony was befuddled. Had she actually paid attention?

"The nurse's."

"Nah, I mean, she was really hot, but so was the doctor. And it's not my style to cause jealousy between co-workers." Now THAT was a nifty answer. Letting her know that he was interested in other women but didn't randomly date all of them. He was proud of himself for that terrific answer.

He looked over to Gibbs and McGee who were both looking at their computer-screens, shaking their heads in disbelief. Well, what did THEY know about women, anyhow.

"Start with your report already, DiNozzo, I am not in a good mod today." Gibbs barked over and Tony immediately started to work.

But although he really did start with the report, he was not very concentrated. What good were four reports of the same case anyway? His mind wandered off to RULE No. 12. Bad bad RULE No. 12! With Kate, this had never been much of an issue. They had bantered and bickered but rarely flirted with each other. Even though some people never believed it, they really had had an almost brother/sister kind of relationship.

With Kathy it was not like that. And would never be. Sure, they could be quite bitchy with each other or joke around as they had before with the paper-ball. But most of the time, when there was no important paperwork and they were not out working a scene, they were flirting. A lot! And he enjoyed that very much.

It was not at all his intention to flirt with her at first. He was making some comment about Kathy's hair, expecting her to go postal just like Kate used to when he got personal about any of her features. But – much to his own and everybody else's surprise – she had just given him a seductive smile, opened her ponytail and let her hair hang down over her shoulders. He still started sweating by the mere thought of that sight. That woman had by far the most fabulous hair he had ever seen – various shades of blonde, very thick, very wild, very long. She had looked like an angel… Well.

Ever since that day she would always react or reply flirty, sometimes more, sometimes less obviously, and he really enjoyed that. The only question was: was she serious about it or did you just make fun of him? No one could answer this question. Abby, because Kathy was too "new" and they hadn't shared any private stuff yet, McGee and Gibbs because they simply refused to listen to him go on an on about the issue and therefore never stayed long enough for him to actually finish a sentence. Maybe he could get Abby to speed the bonding with Kathy up a little. He needed to know if it was necessary to worry about RULE No. 12 or if all the flirting was just a joke.

Suddenly Gibbs was standing in front of him, yelling.

"I said, get your gear, DiNozzo, we have a new case!"

Tony jumped up and grabbed his backpack.

"Sorry, boss, I didn't hear you, I was thinking about the details of the case I have to put in the report." He didn't even get read ears saying this, let alone blush. He was a good liar.

"Yeah, sure you were." Gibbs naturally didn't believe him – he had seen looks like that on Tony's face before and they were NEVER EVER work-related.

"DiNozzo, I'm waiting!" Gibbs yelled again from the elevator.

Tony ran after him and managed to jump in just before the doors closed. Man, was Gibbs seedy today! Something had to be done about that coffee-machine. And not only to put Gibbs in a better mood … also to score some points with Kathy. Extra-points, of course, his charm should be more important than a coffee-machine. In the end there should be addiction - to both "items"…


	7. 07 Clandestine affection

**07 – Clandestine affection**

When Kathy came into the office the next morning, Tony was already there – and he looked like hell. Pale, dark rings under his eyes, having a hard time to keep himself from falling off his chair, his eyes blood-shot.

"Well, good morning Tony, " Kathy said, sounding a bit tired herself, "what are you already doing here?"

"Not already, Kat, STILL. I didn't go home last night, there was just too much to do and then it was five a.m. and leaving didn't make much sense anymore. So I got a six-pack of Red Bull and stayed."

What Tony didn't tell her, was that only half the time he had spent in the office that night had been work-related. The other half he had spent down in Abby's lab, working on Kathy's coffee-machine. Due to the ugly case they had gotten their hands on the afternoon before – a Lieutenant Commander from Norfolk had been found completely gashed in his car on the way to work – Abby couldn't get to packing it back into the box Kathy had brought it in (as an "emergency beyond imagination") on the morning of Tony's medical exam.

Tony had disassembled the machine and checked it very carefully. He had searched the internet for further information on the model, both from the Swiss manufacturer and from owners. (there were crazy folks out there, publishing self-made constructional drawings of their machines), he had made several phone calls to Europe – and nearly had the problem solved. He still couldn't believe he actually did it! Just two missing spare parts, which would be delivered in the afternoon and the machine would work again. His affection for Kathy obviously unleashed hidden skills in him.

"So, did you solve the case all on your own then," he heard Kathy's voice coming out of nowhere, "and we can all take the day off?" She came back up from underneath her desk and looked around, searching for something.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Kat, although I went through all evidence and followed up on some leads, as far as I can tell, this is a tricky one. What are you looking for?" he asked, as she was now crawling around under Gibbs' desk. "The coffee you two threw out yesterday?" He had to laugh at his own joke.

Kathy got up and looked at Tony with an irate sparkle in her eyes.

"Careful, DiNozzo, remember what I told you yesterday – about that baseball I'm gonna throw at you? I'm damn serious about that!"

"I know – sorry. " He didn't want to piss her off. And he could see a hint of panic in flash in her eyes as she turned to McGee's desk.

"Any of you guys brought up my baby from the lab yesterday when I was at Norfolk with Gibbs? Abby said she'd pack her up for me so that I could ship it off to freakin' Canada today – but I checked the lab this morning and couldn't find the box." She looked at him, distressed now. It almost broke his heart. But he didn't want to give away his surprise.

"Sorry, Kat, haven't seen it. We were pretty busy with all the stuff we brought in from the car and Malcolm's house. Abby had a hard time getting all the tests done so that Gibbs could get his results this morning. I'm sure she had not time to pack "the baby" up and just put it somewhere out of the way. Just relax – you won't get to the post office today anyway and your "baby" is safe and sound downstairs with Abby."

Kathy sighed but relaxed. She walked to her desk and booted her computer.

"Tell me what you and Gibbs found out at Norfolk. He didn't come back here after you were finished there, maybe we can already put some puzzle-pieces together before he shows up. Tony got up and pushed his chair over to Kathy's desk.

"I thought about coming in after we were done talking to everybody, but Gibbs said that wouldn't be necessary. It was around midnight and I was glad that he showed some mercy." Kathy smirked, still looking tired.

Tony smiled to himself. Unintentional, Gibbs had done him a huge favor by sending Kathy home after the interviews at Norfolk.

She opened the files of the photos they had taken at the scene the day before. It was a really messy sight; every square-inch of the front of the car sprayed with or soaked in blood. Only the Lieutenant Commander's face showed absolutely no scratch.

"That must have been some really brutal assault. The killer sliced the arteries for the blood to spatter and then slowly cut Malcolm up while he was bleeding out. Sick!"

"Is that what Ducky said?" Kathy asked, surprised if maybe Tony had come up with that conclusion all by himself.

"Yes. He finished the autopsy just before midnight. Called Gibbs and told him the most important points immediately. Anyone at Norfolk got a reason to want him dead?"

"Not from what we heard. Malcolm was very popular and well-respected, both with his staff and his superiors. He has worked on some classified operations but had no assignments that were in any way critical for the accomplishment or the success of the missions. " Kathy replied, pensively staring that the images on the screen.

"What is it?" Tony asked, catching her absent look.

"I was just wondering – he was very attractive and successful. But not married and no signs of a girlfriend, either. I find that kinda strange."

"Ah, the female point of view!" Tony grinned. "See, Kathy, I'm attractive and successful as well – and I don't have a wife or girlfriend. What's so unusual about that? Normally it's the women who want to get married; obviously he just managed to keep his freedom and the possibility to hook up with any attractive woman without feeling guilty."

Kathy rolled her eyes "I got it, DiNozzo, was just a thought, that's all." She couldn't believe how smug he was about his looks and attitude, although she knew he was just kidding. Then a thought came to her and with rogue all over her face she looked at Tony, gave him an innocent glance and said "On second thought, we should check if he's divorced. I mean, that's the thing with Gibbs, right, and he is tremendously attractive."

Bang! That was a good one! Tony, who was just taking another sip of Red Bull, choked and started coughing. She didn't mean that, now, or did she? He was almost shocked, then caught a glimpse on her face while she was reaching for her notes from the interviews at Norfolk. She was clearly pulling his leg but didn't intend to clarify this just yet. "Let's just wait and see who has the longer breath with this game, Agent Westmann." He thought.

"Speaking of Gibbs – where is he anyway? It's almost nine and no one else is here yet. Did we miss the annual field trip or something?" Kathy looked around in the office. She noticed Tony giving her a strange look.

"Kathy, it's not even seven. Your watch must be wrong." Tony replied, pointing his finger to the big clock on the wall.

"Damn! I really should get one of those radio controlled clocks." Kathy said.

"Well, dear, just looking at more that one clock in the morning might help already. They won't all stop at the same, right?"

"Tony, I have only my alarm-clock. No watch, no other clocks in my apartment. Don't need any, don't like them, either." She leaned a little closer to him. "I don't like some assembled mechanic parts dictating my free time, can you understand that?" She whispered to him with an ambiguous smile on her face.

Tony froze and swallowed hard, his imagination flashing the wildest scenes through his head.

"Morning agents!" Gibbs saved him by showing up. "Good to see you're so diligently working on the case at seven a.m."

Kathy slowly withdrew from Tony, turned to Gibbs, who had walked straight to his desk, and gave him a resplendent smile while checking the expression on Tony's face.

"Well, a very good morning to you as well, Gibbs. You're in early – I hope you slept well?"

Tony had a hard time restraining the laughter building up inside his chest. He could not believe how serious Kathy took this thing. Gibbs would so tear her to pieces for that question, he almost felt sorry for her.

"It's none of your business how I spent this or any other night, are we clear about this, Special Agent Westmann?" Gibbs snapped at her. Then he realized that provocative questions like that were not actually Kathy's style. Something must be wrong.

"You okay, Westmann, or did DiNozzo's cologne fog your brain?" he asked, throwing a side-glance at Tony, who was still sitting quite close to her.

"I'm fine, boss." Kathy was now grinning like a Cheshire cat. "I just wanted to be polite, that's all. But it's nice to know you worry about me." She got up from her chair and walked over to the elevator.

Tony and Gibbs looked at each other now, both more or less puzzled, but for different reasons. Gibbs wanted to know why the hell she was acting so weird all of a sudden whereas Tony wanted to know where she was headed – it'd better not be down to the lab asking Abby about the coffee-machine!

"Kathy!" Gibbs and Tony shouted simultaneously.

She had already pushed the button for the elevator and now slowly turned around.

"Back to your desk, Westmann!" Gibbs said gruffly. "We have a case to solve and you will not go anywhere without my permission – especially not with the newly developed weird attitude of yours. Are we clear about that?"

"Crystal, boss." She sat back down in her chair.

A few minutes later, McGee arrived and Gibbs ordered all of them down to the lab to discuss the evidence and any potential leads on the case.

The team casually spread over the lab, carefully listening to Gibbs' summary of the interviews with the Norfolk staff. Ducky came up next, wrapping up the results of the autopsy in one of this "famous" stories.

Kathy and Tony were sitting on the floor next to each other and both drifted off into their own thoughts after a while. Kathy was completely relaxed, savoring Tony sitting so close to her, inconspicuously inhaling his scent. She knew he wasn't wearing any cologne today because he had been in the office all night, but he smelled so incredibly good! Their arms were in contact and this caused a pleasant tickle in her stomach. She didn't know how it had started, because Tony was a Peter Pan and she normally was attracted to serious men who knew their place and their goals in life. But when Tony was around, she felt like walking on air, no matter how silly his jokes were. Deep down she knew that he was very intelligent and grown-up, just hiding any insecurities he might have behind his jokes. And she realized she was falling for him.

At the same time, Tony was also enjoying the direct contact his arms had with Kathy's. There was a spark between them, he was sure about that now. And started to worry about RULE No. 12, but soon pushed that thought aside and returned to the soft brush of Kathy's arm against his again. Even though this was not a romantic situation, it still felt like seventh heaven.

They both didn't notice Abby was looking at them, smiling.

"Cute couple, actually." She thought. "I wonder how long it's gonna take them to admit their affection to each other."

What she didn't know was that both Tony and Kathy were asking themselves the very same question.


	8. 08 Case solved

**08 – Case solved**

When Ducky finished his story and got back to talking about the case, Tony and Kathy eventually managed to pay attention to his words again.

"Our poor Lieutenant Commander Malcolm was cut up quite skillfully, as you may have noticed when you found him." Ducky said.

"Well, yeah Ducky," Tony said, "there was practically no blood left in that guy's body – it was all in the car."

"That is of course true, Tony, but what I meant was that Mr. Malcolm was in one piece, unlike the meat puzzle we solved last year. Although all cuts were deep and very close to each other, the tissue stayed in place, as well as the organs. This could only be done by someone with surgical education."

Tony could feel a shiver going through Kathy. He put his right hand on her upper arm and squeezed it lightly to soothe her. Then he realized what he'd just done and pulled his hand back quickly, hoping nobody had noticed it.

"So we are looking for a surgeon. Or at least someone who's got the education. But why did the guy spare Malcolm's face, it makes no sense. We could have ID'd him from his DNS, his prints, his license plate, you name it – we didn't need the face." Kathy was annoyed – there were too many questions. And no answers.

"Well, my dear Kathrin, I think I can answer your question and correct a false assumption at the same time," Ducky said, looking challenging over to Abby, who went over to the computer and put a graphic of a DNA-Test on the big screen.

"The killer was most probably a woman. We found female saliva on his lips and his mouth," Abby said, looking a little pale.

"How can you be sure the traces are from the killer?" came McGee's voice from the back.

"I wonder the same thing. So he kissed a woman shortly before he died – some people do that. Kiss other people, I mean." Everyone looked at Gibbs now.

"Come on, Abbs," he said impatiently," why do you think our killer is a woman?"

"Because, Jethro", Ducky said, then paused briefly, "the kiss happened AFTER the victim had already passed away. Otherwise the saliva of the killer would have mixed with Malcolms' – which didn't happen."

Kathy's face turned green, Tony and McGee were staring at Ducky in disgust, while Gibbs looked disbelievingly.

"I know what you think Jethro, but we're 100 positive on this, no mistake possible."

Both Abby and Kathy looked like they were going to throw up any second, but Gibbs knew they were Pro's – and had been faced with much worse scenarios. They'd be back to normal in a few minutes, they had not time to worry about their feelings.

He noticed Tony giving Kathy a respectful look.

"Spit it out, DiNozzo!" Gibbs barked ad him.

"Well, boss, I went through the facts with Kathy this morning and she said it was strange that there were no indications for women in Malcolm's live. I didn't think this was particularly strange but with those new facts, maybe we should follow up on it."

For obvious reasons Tony left out the details of the "discussion slash banter". Kathy smirked at him gratefully. Their chat was indeed on a "need-to-know" basis and Tony had really saved the fun for the both of them.

"Interesting thought, Kathy." Gibbs looked at her appreciatively. "DiNozzo, you'll dig deeper on this with her. Meanwhile, Abby, run the DNS through all databases, McGee, you're with me, we'll check Malcolm's house all over again. Ducky, can you go over the body one more time, check if our killer left anything besides saliva – prints, fibers, hair, anything."

Everybody got going, processing the new information in their heads while gathering their stuff. McGee was running after Gibbs who was in a particularly bad mood on his second day on detox from Kathy's coffee. McGee was quarreling with the fact that Gibbs had picked him to endure living hell for the rest of the day.

Tony on the other hand was really happy. It had paid off to be hones and tell Gibbs that the "woman-thing" had been Kathy's idea. This was the first time Gibbs had put them on a task together. Tony smiled. Maybe they could sit together, working on one computer again like they had this morning.

He was already at the elevator when he noticed that Kathy had not followed him. He went back tot the lab where he found Kathy standing next to Abby, who was initiating the search-run to find a match for the DNS as Gibbs had requested.

"Kat, what's up, we should get going. If Gibbs finds out we're niggling he's gonna kill us." Tony remained standing in the door to the lab, waiting for Kathy to leave Abby and join him.

"Tony, we should work down here. Abby can't really do anything while the search is running and she's a way better hacker than I am. We will need her help anyway, so we might as well stay here. Plus, this'll safe us some annoying phone calls from Norfolk." Kathy looked at Tony, not sure how he would react. Truth be told, she was hiding behind this excuse. If the two of them were alone she wouldn't be able to concentrate, so she needed Abby as her chaperone.

Tony was not very fond of her suggestion. He had to be at his desk for the delivery of the parts for Kathy's coffee-machine and he needed some time alone in the lab to finish the repairing. Well, he'd have to reschedule somehow, Kathy's arguments naturally made sense. He'd just send them off for a bite to eat later, go upstairs, grab the parcel with the parts, put them in and take the machine to another safe place to test it. He had a really good conspiracy going on there. He smiled at the thought of Kathy's face when he'd present the coffee-machine to her.

"No problem. Good idea actually. I knew you had it in you, Westmann." He said.

"Had what in me, DiNozzo?" Kathy asked, amazement swinging in her voice.

"Well, having smart ideas. Thinking handy. Like a man. You know?"

He quickly ducked away from the box of rubber-gloves Kathy was throwing at him as an answer to his comment. Abby grinned and turned around.

"Let me know when you're done with your marital quarrel. I'll be waiting for work instructions from either one of you Einsteins." She said.

Immediately Kathy turned away from Tony, who on his part came over to the desk where the girls were standing.

"I don't want to act like a man again, but I think we should check his phone records first." Kathy said. "Private landline first, then cell, then office phone. Approved?" she gave Tony a provocative look.

"Whatever you say, Kat" Tony replied with a smile.

Several hours later, Kathy pushed her chair away from the desk with a frustrated moan. They had worked without any breaks – and without any progress. Gibbs and McGee hadn't shown up yet, not even called for news, obviously they were bagging and tagging Malcolm's entire house.

"We're missing something here, Tony" she said, again reading through the notes they had made on Malcolm's history.

"Yeah, Mrs. Smarty-pants, that's what I've been telling you already an hour ago" Tony snorted back at her, "let's summarize it all up again, shall we?"

Abby groaned, as this had become her cue about three hours ago, go read everything out loud for Tony and Kathy to listen carefully.

"You guys, I can't do this again without something to eat and a HUGE cup of Caf-Pow! First" she whined.

Suddenly, Tony's motivation was about 200. He almost jumped up from his chair at Abby's words.

"Good idea, Abby! I'm not hungry, but why don't you girls get some fresh air, bring us some snacks and some caffeine and we pick it up from here in about an hour?" he said, trying hard to sound as normal as possible. This was his chance to finish work on the coffee machine!

"Cool down, "DAD"," Kathy said, "no need to freak out. If you need a break from our intelligence – just say so. No need to throw us out."

Tony grimaced while Abby and Kathy left the lab. He followed them to the elevator. Kathy had to get her purse first – hopefully the mailman hadn't put the box with the parts on Tony's desk too visible.

As they got to their desks, Tony got nervous. No parcel. Damn! Kathy grabbed her purse and with a "See you later" went back to the elevator, where Abby was waiting for her.

Tony pulled his chair back from his desk – and sighed in relief. There was his package. Great!

He grabbed it and went back to the lab. Hopefully he would be able to put that stuff where it belonged. Considering his lack of sleep, food and oxygen from sitting in the office for almost 24 hours now, he was not really sure if he could pull that off right now, but he was determined to at least try.

He set the alarm of his cell-phone for 40 minutes, praying that Kathy and Abby would not return early and catch him red-handed. Then he retrieved the box containing Kathy's "baby" from the hiding-place and began his work.

Half an hour later he was done! He jumped up from the chair and started to laugh. "Wow, I really did it!" he shouted into the empty room. No one was there to share his joy. Never mind. He filled the bean container with the beans he had ordered along with the spare-parts. It was Kathy's brand. He filled the tank with water, put the machine under a desk with a blank box covering it, then put the plug into the power outlet. He would be the hero of the day!

Just when he had disposed all evidence of his mission, Abby and Kathy stormed back into the lab.

"Tony, we think we got it!" Kathy called excitedly.

Abby was no less jazzed – but more busy sipping Caf-Pow! out of an obscenely large cup.

Tony didn't say a word, but gave Kathy an inquiring look.

"So, Malcolm's history and records are as clean as a chlorine-bleached toilet, right?" Kathy asked.

"Right." Tony nodded.

"And, when Gibbs had me on his list for killing Mark, my past was clean as well, right?" Kathy looked at him completely agitated now.

"Okay, I get it – you think something's faked. But – why?"

"Well, we gave that question some thought over dinner" Abby said, "and we think the answer is Witness-Protection-Program."

"Aw, come on, girls! Why? How did you come up with THAT?"

Kathy looked at him with a hint of impatience.

"Doesn't matter, DiNozzo, it's a reasonable suspicion that would explain why everything matches so neatly." She snapped at him.

Abby was already frantically typing on her keyboard, obviously hacking into the WPP-database. Tony was amazed, when after a few seconds she jumped up and yelled "Call Gibbs!"

One hour later the case was closed. Malcolm had de facto been under protection since he had testified against the father of his girlfriend at the time he was 16 years old. The father had been involved in human trafficking and was later killed in prison by some of his inmates. Obviously his daughter had loved him so much that she didn't come to rest before she had terminated the man who in her eyes was responsible for her fathers' death.

After Abby had hacked into the WPP server and pulled up the record of Malcolm, they had simply looked up the current address of the slave-traders' daughter. Gibbs and McGee had picked her up at her apartment and brought her straight to prison – after taking a DNA sample that of course matched the traces found on Malcolm.

Everybody was in a good mood when Tony asked them to come down to the lab again. As they came in, Ducky first, then Abby, McGee, Gibbs and finally Kathy, they immediately noticed the delicious smell of coffee that was floating through the lab.

"Let's celebrate our achievement with some coffee" Tony said with a smile, while handing Gibbs and Kathy mugs, filled with steaming dark coffee.

Gibbs immediately knew what was going on and smiled at Tony, proud like a father. Kathy needed a little longer. She looked at Tony, then at the coffee, then took a sip. Surprise was written all over her face when she looked back at Tony. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the look in her eyes.

He bent down and pulled the blank box away from the coffee-machine.

"Your baby's waiting for you to take her back home, Kathy. She's up and running again – as you can see and taste."

Kathy wasn't able to move. "You fixed it?" she looked at Tony unbelievingly.

"Yeah, well, four weeks of grumpy Gibbs and snappish Kathy – I thought I might as well give it a shot" he replied.

Finally Kathy's spinal cord was working again. She put down her dup and walked over to Tony. She gave him a tender hug and wasn't able to let go of him for several minutes. Tony put his arms around her and she rested her head on his shoulder and just listened to his steady heartbeat.

When they finally parted, Kathy couldn't speak. She looked at Tony, completely overwhelmed by her feelings. She swallowed.

"Tony" her voice was a mere whisper, "nothing anybody has ever done for me comes even close to this."

"No problem, Kat. Glad I could help." Tony replied.

"Thank you, Tony, thank you so much!" she stepped closer to him again, and when their faces were just fractions of an inch apart, she faltered and took a deep breath. "Oh, what the heck, RULE No. 12" she finally whispered and moved on until her lips met Tony's.

She sighed when she felt his soft lips on hers. His mouth slightly opened and then his tongue carefully caressed her lower lip. His touch was so delicate that she felt the urge to cry tears of joy.

"How could I wait so long to do this?" she thought, "I'll never let him go!"


End file.
